Undervolting/reducing power draw and overclocking questions

Surfer · 23 Jul 2017 at 00:42

Hi there i've never really bothered with this side of things in the past but because my 1080 heats up very fast indeed (goes from 45 idle to 82 in bench inc some games though i havent noticed throttling when it gets to 82 im assuming throttling would show the clock speed to reduce drastically?) i thought i would reduce the power draw on it. As i have heard in the zotac amp edition 1080 zotac basically give this baby too much juice?

i reduced power limit to 89% which did a marvelous job of reducing temps. Temps in benching average around 73 - 75 which is great as before it would peak at 82 when it was at 100% power limit.

i upped the clock rate +91
upped the memory clock + 106

= new boosted clock rate of 2050 around that. The auto boost before would only go to 1980.
stable in heaven bench and firestrike. I actually got a slightly higher score in heaven benchmark 2883 114fps as opposed to 2843 112fps at stock.

Unfortunately the firestrike bench was slightly lower 15095 and graphics score 22077 (at stock i think i got 15290 maybe)

But im quite please it maintained fps and was slightly better at reduced power. However i got a message on the screen (see screenshot) which said LIM POWER. Im assuming this meant limited power. Uhmm ? is basically a warning for me to up the power?

Surfer · 23 Jul 2017 at 00:48

Also did the benchmark for Tomb Raider (1st one) and got 103 fps avg at 1080p(maxed)(min 72 max 132) which was exactly the same as i had at stock and at 100% power limit. But of course i have the reduced temps now. But i also got the LIM POWER message in afterburner.

JoshR1989 · 23 Jul 2017 at 00:59

I RMA'd my Zotac 1080 amp as it wouldn't hold the stock clocks due to thermal limitations which I suspect was poor tim application. After a lengthy battle as I'd had the card sat in its original box for 4 months I won and was offered a credit with which I spent on an ASUS GTX 1080ti strix which does 2000mhz at 65c!
Return the card to stock and if under stress testing it drops below the advertised clock speeds then I would regard that as false advertising provided you have good airflow in your case as without the temps may be much lower.
Josh.

Surfer · 23 Jul 2017 at 01:12

JoshR1989 said:
I RMA'd my Zotac 1080 amp as it wouldn't hold the stock clocks due to thermal limitations which I suspect was poor tim application. After a lengthy battle as I'd had the card sat in its original box for 4 months I won and was offered a credit with which I spent on an ASUS GTX 1080ti strix which does 2000mhz at 65c!
Return the card to stock and if under stress testing it drops below the advertised clock speeds then I would regard that as false advertising provided you have good airflow in your case as without the temps may be much lower.
Josh.

Mine is holding clocks fine both at stock and when I changed it. I only slightly Overclocked it and got 2050 boost no problem

Though I haven't put it through something like furmark. I was asking whether the limit power message is OK to ignore?

JoshR1989 · 23 Jul 2017 at 09:02

Surfer said:
Mine is holding clocks fine both at stock and when I changed it. I only slightly Overclocked it and got 2050 boost no problem Though I haven't put it through something like furmark. I was asking whether the limit power message is OK to ignore?

Yes.
Josh.

andybird123 · 23 Jul 2017 at 09:39

Lim power is just letting you know that under certain circumstances the card is hitting the power limit due to the settings you've set. If you want maximum performance you can raise the power limit, but if you are happy with where the card is at in terms of FPS then it won't be causing you any problems as such.

Surfer · 23 Jul 2017 at 11:31

ahh ok thanks.

I applied a small oc to the cpu (4400) and on the gpu now i have +122 (so usually 2060 to 2101) +220 on mem and increased power limit to 95%

did a bit better in firestrike - 16506, 23179 graphics, physics 8939. (still probably below average for similar systems)

I'm hitting the voltage limit ceiling as well though. I think i had little artifacts in heaven when i upped the gpu clock by 150 and memory by 500 so thats why dropped them. To stop artifacting at that level would need to up the power or voltage yeah? (only using 94%)

Also did the benchmark for Tomb Raider (1st one) and got 103 fps avg at 1080p(maxed)(min 72 max 132) which was exactly the same as i had at stock and at 100% power limit.

now getting 109 fps avg 76 min 136 max so thats a plus i guess.

JoshR1989 · 23 Jul 2017 at 12:45

I wouldn't bother with voltage for 24/7 tbh, it'll net maybe 1-2fps but may shorten the life of the card, use it for benching yes but there is little to be gained in real usage.
Josh.

Dirk Diggler · 23 Jul 2017 at 13:11

If your issue is the card running too hot, and with an AIB card I would definitely consider temperatures in the 80's a little too hot, then you are looking for a hardware solution not a software solution. Limiting voltage or power is just limiting performance.

What case do you have the card in? I think you need to rule out airflow issues.

Surfer · 23 Jul 2017 at 13:55

String said:
If your issue is the card running too hot, and with an AIB card I would definitely consider temperatures in the 80's a little too hot, then you are looking for a hardware solution not a software solution. Limiting voltage or power is just limiting performance.

What case do you have the card in? I think you need to rule out airflow issues.

i think case is fine. its a known issue with some zotac amp edition. Not a problem really just the temps ramp up quick. The amp extreme doesnt suffer from this (same pcb) because its cooler is apparently pretty epic.

Its interesting though i can oc the gpu to 2100 at only 95% power.

https://www.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/4tc9wy/zotac_1080_amp_overheating_fix/

https://www.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/4sgwg8/zotac_1080_amp_edition_owners_temperature_and/

andybird123 · 23 Jul 2017 at 14:07

Clock speed becomes a bit meaningless if you are limiting performance via power limit as the gpu will limit the amount of work it completes to stay within the power limit regardless of the clock speed. Its like supercharging an engine and then sticking a block under the accelerator so you cant push it to the floor.

Surfer · 23 Jul 2017 at 14:24

andybird123 said:
Clock speed becomes a bit meaningless if you are limiting performance via power limit as the gpu will limit the amount of work it completes to stay within the power limit regardless of the clock speed. Its like supercharging an engine and then sticking a block under the accelerator so you cant push it to the floor.

To continue your example. Its a ferrari engine which has slightly more power draw than the other v8 engines. So reducing the power output to the same as the other engines shouldn't compromise performance.

quoted the bit from the reddit thread

A comparison of 2 slot card power limits from other manufacturers

Zotac 1080 amp 100% - 270w, max 120% - 324w

Founders Edition 100% - 180w, max 120% - 216w

MSI Gaming X 100% - 240w, max 107% - 256w

Asus Strix 100% - 200w, max 120% - 240w

Gigabyte G1 100% - 180w, max 120% - 216w

So as you can see the zotac stock power limit is much higher than every other cards max power limit

edit: i'm able to hit the higher clocks and get more fps at this reduced power without difficulty.

Dirk Diggler · 23 Jul 2017 at 14:39

You're off on a wee tangent here.

With everything at stock settings, what temperature is your card hitting under full load for roughly 10 minutes? Also, what is the stock fan speed expressed as a %?

Surfer · 23 Jul 2017 at 14:49

stock fan

30% - 40 deg
50% - 50 deg
80% - 80 deg
100 - 90 deg

idle 45
when benchmarking temps get to 82

aggressive custom fan

40% - 30
60% - 50
80% - 60 deg
100% - 70 deg

idle 38
peak temps around 74 - 78

Dirk Diggler · 23 Jul 2017 at 15:18

Surfer said:
stock fan

30% - 40 deg
50% - 50 deg
80% - 80 deg
100 - 90 deg

idle 45
when benchmarking temps get to 82

aggressive custom fan

40% - 30
60% - 50
80% - 60 deg
100% - 70 deg

idle 38
peak temps around 74 - 78

That reads to me like a cooling issue, mate. Set a solid fan speed that you can live with in terms of noise (probably 70% or thereabouts) and see what your peak temperature is.

If it's still too high, then next step is improve case cooling. Last resort (because it's Zotac) is to change the TIM. RMA is out of the question as the card operates as designed.

Surfer · 23 Jul 2017 at 15:22

uhmm yeah i set it to aggressive and temps are around 74-78 depending on stress

i think you overlooked my point about limiting power. This was an accepted solution by loads of people with the zotac.

andybird123 · 23 Jul 2017 at 16:47

oops, thought you were talking about a 1080ti - I find it hard to believe zotac have set the power limits of a 1080 card above what a 1080ti comes with though

point is, if you are hitting the power lim flag then it is slowing down the card - if you are overclocking to 2050 then you are kicking the card to a higher voltage bin which will increase heat and you aren't getting the full benefit of the clock speed because its hitting the power limit anyway

try actually under-volting instead of using the power limit and temps should drop better

Surfer · 23 Jul 2017 at 17:07

andybird123 said:
try actually under-volting instead of using the power limit and temps should drop better

Do you know any easy youtube guides for this?

But tbh i will test with a few games and if temps stay fine but also great frames then its all good could just leave it as it is.

I need to look at a few comparison 1080 game benchmarks as i dont know what fps i SHOULD be getting in games lol.

Dirk Diggler · 23 Jul 2017 at 17:09

Surfer said:
Do you know any easy youtube guides for this? But tbh i will test with a few games and if temps stay fine but also great frames then its all good could just leave it as it is.

I need to look at a few comparison 1080 game benchmarks as i dont know what fps i SHOULD be getting in games lol.

Move the slider into the negative in Afterburner. However, bear in mind that stability will be risked and you may get driver crashes.

I wouldn't imagine this would solve your problem.

Edit:

What case do you have the card in? Could you post some photos?

Surfer · 23 Jul 2017 at 19:58

heres a few deus ex images. Running (well uhh rendered anyway) in 1440p with vsynch on 60 fps with vsynch off its 60 - 80 fps. Everything maxed except no contact hardening and no msaa.

I notice that gpu isnt at the limit..only 80 ish percent. It was like that in chivalry as well. 30% utilization or something. I guess the gpu usage only goes up if it is being challenged?